Sunday, November 8, 2009

Egg Whites in My Cocktails



In the past few weeks I've sampled cocktails at three lovely Seattle lounges: 

1. ART at the Four Seasons
2. Vessel 
3. Tavern Law

Each offers visually beautiful cocktails, some classic recipes and innovative concoctions.  The frothy egg whites gave me a thrill. 


 ART (At the Four Seasons)

99 Union St, Seattle 206-749-7000
ART (Four Seasons) on Urbanspoon

I discovered the Pisco Sour at ART, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since.  You can see the bitters  precisely inserted and swirled atop egg whites by the expert "mixologist." 


The classic recipe for a pisco sour consists of pisco (a brandy produced in Chile and Peru from distilled muscat grapes), lime juice, simple syrup, egg white and bitters. 

Here I am enjoying the snacks as I contemplated the next round. 
 
ART has nice snacks with a clean presentation.
 
I had the opportunity to sassy the mini burgers from the two men next to me at the bar, but I opted out. I did chat with them about the food, and they thought the mini-burger trio was "pretty good." Here we have a nice view of the last half eaten mini-burger. As you can see, I am not an indiscriminate about when I take bites of food from strangers. I usually don't consider sampling a fully picked-over dish, and yes, I always test the waters first, and assess the situation before diving in.

I ordered the classic potato gnocchi with truffles - a decadent, smoky, and smooth dish.


The veal schnitzel with white anchovies, capers, and duck egg was nice too - especially the anchovy-caper tapenade. After doing a little schnitzel research I learned that Scandinavian countries traditionally serve their veal schnitzel with anchovies and capers. I also discovered that schnitzel with fried egg is known as a Holstein Schnitzel. You can find the Emeril Legasse recipe here.  

On to the next place for egg whites in my cocktails...

Vessel
1312 5th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 (206) 652-0521
Vessel on Urbanspoon



Vessel is an urban, sophisticated bar catering to the professional crowed, and for the most part, tonight's crowd was in their thirties to fifties.  A cool glass and iron, dim vibe and a complicated cocktail menu.

The Agricole Sour (below) was featured tonight. Instead of being distilled from molasses, agricole rum is distilled from fresh sugar cane juice. This recipe consisted of Neisson Agricole Blanc, dark falernum, egg white, lemon and lime juice, and bitters.

What is falernum? It's a rum, clove, ginger, nutmeg, all spice, and lime infusion. The cocktail was suprisingly dark and complex in flavor and not at all sweet. The frothy egg whites balanced and brightened this cocktail. Excellent. 

At Vessel, the cocktail menu is sometimes perplexing, but always interesting. I had to ask the server (who was extraordinarily patient and willing to explain every detail of every drink to me) all about falernum and agricole.

Since we are focusing now on the egg white category, I'm also going to point out the Marmalade Sour which also involves egg whites. You can check out images and the recipe on superstar mixologist, Jamie Boudreau's Spirits and Cocktails blog here.

The food menu at Vessel is limited to just a few tapas-sized items such as butternut squash tartlets, tuna tartar, and chorizo sausage with mustard. Here is an after-I-sassied-the-truffle-potato-chips-picture of the neighboring table.  The chips were greasy and heavy on the truffle oil. The ladies allowed me to try their chips, but they weren't chatty.  Most of the drinks at Vessel look amazing. The snow cone in the foreground above is the mint julep. I borrowed it from the table next to me, so I could take this picture.

Well, I hung out at the bar a little (the atmosphere was festive because of all the guest mixologists working in honor of the bar's third birthday) and I asked around about other dishes and did a little opinion survey on the potato chips.  An attractive woman at the bar, with a black leather jacket and a brand new very dark red manicure suggested that the potato chips that particular evening were unusually oily, but they were normally much tastier. 

On to the next egg white cocktails at....

Tavern Law
1406 12th Ave
Seattle (206) 322-9734
Tavern Law on Urbanspoon

Tavern Law, has a "secret" upstairs - a second hidden bar inspired by the prohibition era speakeasy. Luckily, the drink and food menu compensate for the gimmicky theme. The cocktail menu is made up of a litany of period drinks from classic restaurants and bars. The revival of the speakeasy aesthetic and mood is a current trend in urban bars (from martinis served in tea cups or ceramic mugs, secret doors and sign-less entrances, to "old" wood and brick interiors). The New York Times even mentions Tavern Law in its recent piece on prohibition drinking and the recent re-birth of the faux speakeasy. In any case Tavern Law offers unusual cocktails and a knowledgeable and committed staff.

Below is Vessel's rendition of the Clover Club cocktail, first served at the famed New York Waldorf Astoria hotel in 1935. The Clover Club consists of gin, lemon, raspberry syrup and egg whites.

Other pretty cocktails at Vessel and an example of the hand-written food menu (bottom left hand corner):

The cocktail menu is printed, but the food menu changes daily and is hand-written on a blackboard or a slip of paper.

The service here goes above and beyond. It is outstanding. I was stubbornly annoyed by the shards of ice floating about in my Clover Club cocktail. They were interrupting the smooth egg whites, but before I could get too worked up about it, the mixologist passed by with his straining equipment and smoothed out my drink. For the next round, pisco sours with the house Pisco brandy at Tavern Law.

And here is the lovely bartender/mixologist , posing with the chalk board menu.
 
I look forward to returning to sample more cocktails at Tavern Law, ART and Vessel...and I especially look forward to another stunning Pisco Sour at ART.



4 comments:

Tom Hart said...

Wow- I've never had egg whites in a cocktail. And my main cocktail guru, Matt Madden - http://maddensprayer.blogspot.com/ just flew away to France. HE would know where to go get a good one in NYC.

Guess I'll settle for my rotgut Rob Rois (or is Robs Roi?) until he gets back.

Unknown said...

Very nice. Next time at Vessel you must try the Porto Flip. Not on the menu and it uses both parts of the egg. The white and the yolk. I tried this one the other night in another "turkey" series of 3 cocktails. Haven't had a bad drink yet. Don't ever expect to. BTW the ice globes are back and they had the lamb burger sliders were not sold out the other day! The 3 Year Anniversary was crazy...

S said...

Nice recap of your visit to ART but I must insist that on my own, the schnitzel was by far superior--the gnocchi both gummy and leaden in mouth (if that's possible), and the over-ripe parmesan +truffle simply overplayed. No amount of Italian flat leaf could brighten. Contrary to your sassessment, I found the veal lightly & lovingly breaded golden like -katsu from Tokyo's finest streets. Succulent slices of cutlet left intact, not pounded into oblivion, along with the light, astringent lift of caper-anchovy make this one the pièce de résistance. Oh yeah can't forget the sunny duck egg alongside. A perfect complement.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.